This invention relates, in general, to vehicle motion measuring apparatus and, more specifically, to electronic logging of vehicle motion variables.
The acquiring of vehicle motion information can be useful for various vehicle users, including fleet operators, public service and common carrier companies, travelling business and sales people, and private individuals. These and other organizations and drivers can use vehicle motion information for the purposes of maintenance, scheduling, driver supervision, route analysis, tax records, and for other reasons. In order to make efficient use of this information, it must be permanently logged for later analysis and/or processing.
Most conventional vehicle motion measuring devices calculate certain quantities, such as speed, elapsed time, and elapsed mileage, and displays the values of these quantities in real time displays located in the vehicle. While suitable for the intended application, these conventional devices usually lack information about any vehicle stops. As a result, conventional devices cannot be used to determine enough details about the operation and movement of the vehicle to be useful in most analysis situations. Therefore, it is desirable, and it is an object of this invention, to provide vehicle motion logging apparatus which is constructed and operated to preserve motion information which can be indictive, for analysis purposes, of the overall motion of the vehicle rather than reporting motion variables just as they occur.